At 14, China’s Hou Yifan became the youngest ever holder of the
Grandmaster title and two years later, when just 16, she was
crowned the youngest ever Women’s World Champion.

But the fact is that Yifan has been breaking records since she
was nine years of age when she became World U-10 Girls Champion and
then at 13, China’s youngest ever National Champion!

Since then she has circled the globe playing almost non-stop in
some of the most exotic places imaginable and with numerous
victories to show, including the KL Open in 2010 where she
surprised me by accepting my invitation to play (probably it did
not hurt that her coach Ye Jiangchuan who is also General Secretary
of the China Chess Association is someone I have known since 1984)
and from a sponsor’s perspective, her winning the event boasting 17
grandmasters with a round to spare is the stuff publicists can only
dream of.

2014 will be the last year that Yifan is categorised as a junior
by FIDE (World Chess Federation) and she is now closing in on the
ratings record held by the legendary Judit Polgar who has been
ranked No. 1 among women chess players for an amazing 25 years.

Yifan and Judit only met once with the world champion taking the
honours. Polgar, 38, recently announced her retirement from
competitive play after a successful outing for the Hungarian men’s
team at the Tromso Olympiad and the timing is probably right as the
incredibly talented Yifan, 20, is just two points short of matching
her rating which at one time no one believed would ever be
surpassed.

Judit is clearly a talent for all time, a living legend who at
her peak clearly belonged with the top 15 men, but she comes from a
time when fewer women played (and mainly with their own sex).

She has always refused to play in women’s events so arguably her
rating has benefitted as a result, Judit’s only exception to this
rule being at the single Olympiad won by Hungary in 1988 when all
three Polgar sisters led by big sister and mentor Susan, then the
strongest of all, decided to make a point of their pre-eminence in
women’s chess by playing together in competition with the other
women players.

In contrast, Yifan plays in simply everything! Since becoming
world champion she has become one of the game’s biggest
ambassadors, essentially becoming a globetrotter and even going to
some places one would not imagine chess is played! (This young
woman is one of the nicest persons one could meet, completely
without any airs, always accommodating even if the demands on her
time are making it more and more difficult to meet each and every
request made of her by so many!).

More amazing perhaps is that while Yifan has been a long time
member of China’s national team and so plays, trains and works with
her team mates as regularly as national assignments demand, she
still has no personal coach. In fact, she is forced to share the
likes of Ye Jiangchuan with all the others!

This was confirmed in an enlightening conversation on national
chess development with Yifan facilitated by me at the request of
the legendary Indonesian Grandmaster Utut Adianto, a top 20 player
in his time, now a sitting twice elected Senator but very much
active in promoting chess by serving as Deputy President of PERCASI
(All Indonesia Chess Federation) and through his nationwide SCUA
(Sekolah Catur Utut Adianto) network.

On top of that, China is still China, and the government takes a
levy on prize money won. I remember well Yifan making the polite
joke that she would have been happy to be Indonesian given the
benefits their girls received!

It is clear that it is just a matter of time before she
surpasses Judit’s ratings record but a more and very significant
development is Yifan’s latest success! (Surprisingly, of the
prominent English language chess news sites only Chessbase gave her
result the coverage it deserved and was also not shy to state what
it meant.)

The organisers of the Corsican Circuit had amazingly managed to
get both Yifan and former World Champion (and again World
Championship Candidate) Viswanathan Anand to take part in a
knockout event and when the dust settled it was Yifan who emerged
the winner, beating Sergey Fedorchuk who had put out Anand in the
Semi-Finals by a score of 2-0!

Here is the final game -- our thanks to Chessbase -- one which
shows off both her fighting spirit and wonderful
resourcefulness.

Fedorchuk,Sergey A (2673) - Hou,Yifan (2673) [B72]

Corsican Circuit 2014 - Final Ajaccio (1.2), 22.10.2014

[Ramirez Alvarez,Alejandro]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6!? [Hou Yifan is well versed in her Sicilians,
but it is not so common for her to start the game like this.]

3.Nc3 [An anti-Sveshnikov move, but I doubt the World Champion
was planning to play that with the Black pieces.]

3...g6 [The accelerated Dragon becomes more feasible for top-GMs
to play once the Maroczy has been avoided.]

4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 Bg7 6.Be3 Nf6 7.Be2 [An old but relatively
quiet line, Black is not supposed to have too many problems in this
variation.]

[7.Bc4 0–0 8.Bb3 is still the most theoretically challenging
line. Black has a few options at her disposal.]

7...0–0 8.f4 [8.0–0 d5 is already known to be equal.]

8...d6 9.Nb3 [This line has fallen out of popularity for a long
time now. Black has more than one continuation that promises good
play.]

9...a6 [9...Be6 10.g4 d5 11.f5 Bc8 12.exd5 Nb4 13.Bf3 is a
famous and old game between Fischer-Reshevsky, 1961.; 9...a5! is
more assertive.; 9...e5!?]

10.g4 [White’s attack on the kingside in these kinds of
situations is usually somewhat slow. It is more visually impactful
than dangerous.]

13.0–0–0 Na4! [This is the point. Now c3 is under attack and
Black already has concrete threats.]

14.Nd4 Bb7?! [14...Nxc3! 15.Qxc3 Nxd4 16.Bxd4 e5! would have
been a perfect way to continue the game. White’s structure is
falling apart.]

15.Nd5 Nxd4 16.Bxd4 e5 17.fxe5 Bxd5! [An important strategical
decision. White’s knight on d5 is far more useful for White than
the bishop as Black is embarking on a dark-square attack.]

18.exd5 dxe5 19.Be3 Qd6?! [Letting Fedorchuk slightly off the
hook.]

[19...e4! 20.Bd4 (20.c3 b4 is not a position that White can
survive.) 20...Qxd5is a clean pawn.]

20.Kb1 Rac8 [Black still keeps some initiative. Notice that
White has not had time to develop anything on the other flank.]

21.h4? e4?! [Missing a brilliant finish.]

[21...Rc3!! This unusual move wins on the spot. The point is
that b4 is now clear for the queen, making the attack on the
queenside far more dangerous. The rook is clearly taboo. 22.Ka1
(22.bxc3 Qa3 with unstoppable mate following up.) 22...e4 23.Rb1
Ra3!]

22.Bd4 Qxd5 23.Qe3 Bxd4 24.Rxd4 Qc5 25.c3 Rfd8 26.Rhd1 Rxd4
27.Rxd4 Re8 [At the end of the day White has survived the attack.
He is down a pawn but can regain it in the next move; though he
would still be a little worse.]

28.h5? [28.Bf3! Qf5 29.Bxe4 Qf1 30.Qc1 Qf2]

28...Qe5 29.h6 Nc5? [Already with both players in time pressure
both players miss an important resource here.]

30.Bg4? [30.c4! White has the strong threat of Rd5, and its
surprisingly difficult to stop!]

30...Kf8 31.a3 Ne6 32.Bxe6 Qxe6 33.a4 Qf5 [Black is now up a
pawn. It is difficult to convert, but it helps when all you need is
a draw.]

- See more at:
http://www.mmail.com.my/opinion/peter-long/article/already-the-greatest-woman-chess-player-ever#sthash.Htd1d65m.dpuf

Peter Long is Executive Director at the Kasparov Chess
Foundation Asia-Pacific which advocates the use of chess in
education and facilitates regional chess development. He also runs
the Kuala Lumpur Chess Association where despite challenges of
parents he remains passionate about young talent development. He
can be contacted at peterlong@aol.asia and Twitter: @PeterCBLong

Is 16-year-old Vladislav Artemiev set to follow in the footsteps
of Anatoly Karpov, Vladimir Kramnik and Mikhail Botvinnik? Spanish
IM David Martínez continues his series looking at the Russian and
Chinese schools of chess by examining three endgames in which the
young Russian talent demonstrated extraordinarily good
technique.

by IM David Martínez

Stay patient, create a weakness, fix it, then attack it.
Classical concepts such as this one were at the heart of the Soviet
School of Chess established by the Sixth World Champion, Mikhail
Botvinnik. That “Soviet” technique attained its peak in the
filigree technique of two later World Champions, Anatoly Karpov and
Vladimir Kramnik, though of course it was also evident in
Botvinnik’s contemporaries Vasily Smyslov and Tigran Petrosian.

We shouldn’t forget there’s also a lineage of dynamic players,
exemplified by Alexander Alekhine, Mikhail Tal and Garry Kasparov,
but the top young Russians led by Vladislav Artemiev and Aleksandra
Goryachkina prefer a much more subtle and positional style of
chess. Analysing their games – and we’re going to look at three
involving Artemiev – you can’t help but feel the “Patriarch” –
Botvinnik – would be very proud that his legacy has extended into
the post-Soviet era.

Vladislav Artemiev: Making the difficult look easy

Artemiev scored 8/9, for a 2869 performance, at the student
round robin during this year's Moscow Open | photo: official
website

Artemiev exemplifies Botvinnik’s methodical technique. With the
white pieces he prefers a calm game and normally plays queen’s pawn
openings, not looking for any great theoretical complications. He
aims for solidity and a microscopic edge in the opening, which he’s
then willing to try and exploit for hours on end, usually with
great success! With Black he also plays for a win, not shying away
from complications but playing the highly theoretical Najdorf and
Grünfeld.

Let’s take a look at three “difficult” games for Artemiev, all
wins in classical chess against higher-rated grandmasters: Denis
Khismatullin and Maxim Matlakov (twice). In all three encounters
you can observe the same pattern: Vladislav shuns complications in
the opening, plays quietly but then slowly but surely ups the
pressure until his opponent goes wrong. Three true positional
gems.

Artemiev, at the time still only an International Master,
qualified for the 2015 World Cup by scoring 7.5/11 at this year's
European Individual Championship, losing a single game to the
eventual winner, Alexander Motylev.

Finally let's return to the European Championship, and the vital
last round game against 23-year-old Matlakov. After a marathon
129-move effort Artemiev managed to accomplish his mission and
qualify for the World Cup, while his opponent, who started the day
on the same number of points, sank to 53rd place.

You can learn a lot from observing the methodical approach young
Artemiev uses to win these endings. He’s clearly assimilated much
of the Soviet and Russian heritage, but before his career’s over we
might instead be looking to his games to discover the secrets of
“Russian” chess!

As we’ll see in the next instalment, though, the Chinese school
takes a completely different approach.

The world’s largest chess team championship in history came to a
close this month. The final results of the 177 teams in the open
and 133 teams in the women’s section were completely surprising.
Team ratings would have suggested the Russians taking the open and
the Chinese victorious in the women’s, but just the opposite
resulted. The Chinese open team, consisting of Wang Yue, Ding
Liren, Yue Yangyi, Ni Hua and Wei Yi, some of whom had hardly been
heard of in the West, took the lead after defeating Azerbaijan in
the eighth round and never relinquished it thereafter.

The exhausting schedule at Tromso, Norway, turned predictions on
their head. None of the top-rated teams won medals. Gold, silver
and bronze team medals went instead to China, Hungary, and India,
respectively. Judit Polgar of Hungary earned the silver for reserve
player. Strangely Polgar, probably the strongest female player in
history, announced her retirement at the age of 38 possibly to
focus on her family. India’s bronze was unusual as it was won
without former world champion Viswanathan Anand and their No. 2
player, Pendyala Harikrishna.

In the last three rounds, the US team did not fare particularly
well. In round 9 it defeated Argentina. Alas, the team fell to
France in the 10th and lost to Azerbaijan in the last round, ending
in 14th place. Its final score was 7-4 and finished out of the
running for a medal. Sam Shankland, a recent Brandeis graduate, won
as an alternate in the first round, stayed on the team, and kept
winning in a blaze of victories, ending with a score of 9-1 and
winning the gold for the fifth place alternate position. He had a
performance rating of 2831.

In the ladies’ section, Russia had upended China in their match,
took the lead and held it to the end. China received the silver,
Ukraine, the bronze. The US finished in eighth place.

A sleeper was former world champion Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria
who won the first board gold medal. Michael Adams of England got
the silver; Anish Giri of the Netherlands won the bronze. We
followed, as well, the fortunes of the world champion Magnus
Carlsen, who ended with a score of 6-3. He had a draw with Tomi
Nyback of Finland and Levon Aronian of Armenia and had losses
against Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany and Ivan Saric of Croatia. He
did not play the last round, possibly choosing to rest for the
Sinquefield tournament to be held in St. Louis on Aug. 27-Sept. 7.
He will compete against Hikaru Nakamura, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave,
Aronian, Fabiano Caruana, and Topalov.

In the history of chess, only one woman has played on
the highest level and this is Judit Polgar. At her best she even
managed to enter the Top Ten. Hou Yifan, the current Women's World
Champion and clearly the strongest female player after Polgar seems
to do fine against men as well. Yifan is very close to entering the
Top 100 and already proves this in the first round of
Biel.

2012年直布罗陀公开赛侯逸凡胜小波 Hou Yifan beat

瑞士比尔大赛首轮侯逸凡胜吉里 Hou Yifan won against Giri

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5

This is a very popular move at the moment. There have always
been a few Top GMs who liked 3.Bb5, but especially after the games
of Carlsen this move came into fashion.

3...Nd7

And this is the most fighting reply for Black. The main line is
clearly 3...Bd7 and now in the latest games White seems to push a
bit after 4.c4!?, and strangely Black did not show a clear way to
equalize so far.

4.d4

The most principled. White also has moves like 4.0-0 or
4.c3.

4...cxd4 5.Qxd4 a6

[FEN "r1bqkbnr/1p1npppp/p2p4/1B6/3QP3/

5N2/PPP2PPP/RNB1K2R w KQkq - 0 6"]

6.Be2!?

Quite an interesting and rare move. We would be in the main
lines after 6.Bxd7 Bxd7 7.0-0 and now White's idea is usually
connected with the c4 move.

6...Ngf6 7.0-0 e5

Giri is already planning a pawn sacrifice, which just looks too
dangerous. The simple 7...e6 8.c4 b6 9.Nc3 Bb7 would lead us to
hedgehog structures where the white queen is not so perfectly
placed on d4. Anyhow, he might be in time to regroup and get some
small plus.

8.Qe3 d5

It is clear that Black had planned the d5 move before playing
e5.

9.exd5

Of course!

9...Bc5?

[FEN “r1bqk2r/1p1n1ppp/p4n2/2bPp3/8/

4QN2/PPP1BPPP/RNB2RK1 w kq - 0 10”]

It seems as if Giri does not take his opponent too seriously.
There was no reason for Black to take such rushed actions. After
9...Nxd5 10.Qd3 N5f6, Black's position is maybe a bit worse, but
White has nothing too spectacular.

10.Qd2!

The queen takes a perfect position on d2, not only to protect
the d5-pawn, but as well to prepare the c4-b4 pawn pushes.

10...0-0 11.c4

So Black is a full pawn down and in case White will be in time
to play something like b4-Nc3-Bb2 the game could already simply be
over. Black needs to react very quickly here.

11...e4

This is probably the best try for Black, as at least the knight
is going to take a great position on e5.

12.Nd4 Ne5

White's position is clearly better, but Black has many tricks;
for example, connected with Nfg4-Qh4 or Qc7 with the idea of
playing Ng4 next. White needs to be careful.

[FEN "r1bq1rk1/1p3ppp/p4n2/2bPn3/2PNp3/

8/PP1QBPPP/RNB2RK1 w - - 0 13"]

13.b4!

Another strong decision by Hou Yifan, the move in the game is
much stronger than something like 13.Nc3. Now White will have the
idea of playing c5-d6 to totally kill all of Black's hopes.

13...Ba7 14.Nc3 Bg4

Black continues to try and create some complications. Maybe a
slightly better try to save the game could have been 14...Nd3
15.Nc2! (15.Bxd3 is premature since after 15...Bxd4 16.Be2 Be5 the
black bishop on e5 gives Black some attacking chances.) 15...Nxc1
16.Raxc1 and of course White is a full pawn up and has a much
better position, but Black's bishop-pair could give him some
theoretical chances to survive the game.

15.c5!

[FEN “r2q1rk1/bp3ppp/p4n2/2PPn3/

1P1Np1b1/2N5/P2QBPPP/R1B2RK1 b - - 0 15”]

Another very good move by White based on an exact calculation.
White is using the moment that the pawn on d5 can't be taken to get
the bishop on a7 completely out of the game.

15...a5

15...Nxd5 didn't really help since after 16.Nxe4 White is just a
clear pawn up.

16.a3

Of course the structure must be kept.

16...Nxd5

This is not the best move order. To get a better version Black
should have played 16...Bb8 before taking on d5. Black is provoking
the bishop to b2. 17.Bb2 Nxd5 18.Nxe4 Bxe2 Of course White is a
clear pawn up, but Black might keep some fighting chances.

17.Nxe4 Bb8

And now we see the difference to 16...Bb8, White has another
move to play rather than 18.Bb2.

18.f3

Hou Yifan is playing a perfect game. There is no reason for
White to exchange the bishop on e2, which is controlling the knight
e5.

18...Nf4?!

[FEN "rb1q1rk1/1p3ppp/8/p1P1n3/1P1NNnb1/

P4P2/3QB1PP/R1B2RK1 w - - 0 19"]

A mistake never comes alone. Giri makes another clear
miscalculation, but I must admit that it is difficult to find a
good move in a bad position. 18...Bh5 would lead to the same result
as in the game, since after 19.Nf5 the threat of playing Qxd5 gives
White enough time to put the knight to d6.

19.Nd6!

The last important move of the game. Black is losing
material.

19...Bxd6

19...Nxe2 20.Qxe2 would lead to the same position as in the game
via a different move order.

20.cxd6 Nxe2 21.Qxe2 Qxd6 22.Nb5

I guess this is the move Giri blundered.

22...Qf6

22...Qb6 didn't help since after 23.Be3 Black is losing the g4
bishop.

23.fxg4

The most simple. White has a big material advantage and the
attack too!

23...Nf3 24.Qxf3 Qxa1

[FEN "r4rk1/1p3ppp/8/pN6/1P4P1/

P4Q2/6PP/q1B2RK1 w - - 0 25"]

25.Be3

Precision until the end. White wants to play Bc5 next, putting
pressure on the f7-pawn. The game is totally over.

25...Qf6 26.Qxf6 gxf6 27.Nc7

The white knight is coming to d5.

27...Rac8

27...Rad8 28.Bh6 and the f8 rook has no squares.

28.Nd5 1-0

A great game by Hou Yifan who perfectly
capitalized on the mistakes of her opponent. I guess with this win
she gained a lot of respect from the top players, who will not try
to play against her as with a little girl, sacrificing pawns for a
doubtful initiative.

By her own definition, 19-year-old Hou Yifan is an average student. She is a sophomore at Peking University, one of China’s top colleges, and says she constantly falls behind on her work.

But she has a better excuse than most: Ms. Hou is one of the greatest chess prodigies in history. She has been ranked among the top 10 women in the world since she was 12 and became a grandmaster, the game’s top title, when she was 14 years old — the 15th youngest on record.

On Friday, while most of her fellow students were in class, Ms. Hou was routing Anna Ushenina of Ukraine in the last game of their Women’s World Chess Championship match in Taizhou, China.
Ms. Hou won the match 5.5 to 1.5 to recapture the crown, which she lost last year in the early rounds of a championship tournament. Ms. Ushenina, who is now 28, won the tournament, and the title. Ms. Hou first won the crown in 2010 when she was 16, making her the youngest player, man or woman, to win a world title. She successfully defended the title in 2011.

This year, Ms. Hou was the heavy favorite. She went into the match ranked as the No. 2 female player in the world; Ms. Ushenina’s ranking was No. 17.
For her victory, Ms. Hou earned the equivalent of about $160,000, while Ms. Ushenina received the equivalent of about $106,000.

In a telephone interview in English an hour after the last game Friday, Ms. Hou said the match “wasn’t so easy, but it also was not so difficult.” Because of her schedule at the university and because she had recently played in another tournament, she said, she had had little time to prepare.

Born in Xinghua, China, Ms. Hou discovered the game when she was 3 and her father took her to a store where she saw a glass chess set in a window and began staring at it. Her father bought a set, and she soon began beating him, so he found her a chess tutor. By 2003, at age 9, she was a member of the Chinese national team.

Describing herself Friday as a full-time student, Ms. Hou said she did not receive any “special privileges” that allowed her to avoid fulfilling her course requirements. She also has to be in class most of the time, although she is allowed to leave for tournaments. Her travel schedule — she was recently in Norway and will soon go to Greece — is making her studies difficult, but she said she took her books with her.

Ms. Hou is well known in China, so when she enrolled last year at the university, some of the other students were “a bit surprised,” she said. But she said her fellow students had gotten used to having her there.

Asked why she was in the university at all, she said, “I am trying to really learn something” other than chess.

Now that the championship is over, she is going back to school before she competes in the European Club Cup next month. Before leaving, she has to cram for exams.

***********************************

A version of this article appears in print on September 21, 2013, on page A4 of the New York edition with the headline: Late on Her Schoolwork? Well, She’s a Titan of Chess.

The 3rd Women Masters Chess Tournament takes place in Wuxi,
Jiangsu, China from 31 May to 9 June 2013. The
time control: 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest
of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from
move one.